How do you like the new AQ changes?

I personally think the paragon store is a nice upgrade. Adding rank four materials was long overdo.
What are your comments/concerns?

Comments

LeNoirFaineant

Don’t like the change about opening all your crystals, I see no point in this what so ever, why can’t we use them as we need them. Just another cash grab by Kabam.

I can see being opposed to this decision. The reason probably has to do with obsolete crystals bogging down the servers or something. Maybe it's for the best and maybe not, I have no idea. But in what way is it a cash grab? Do you think this move will cause people to spend?

Dukenpuke

Don’t like the change about opening all your crystals, I see no point in this what so ever, why can’t we use them as we need them. Just another cash grab by Kabam.

I'm fine with this, as long as they also start returning T5CC fragments when you sell T4CC.

The reason why most people hoard these crystals is because they have more T4CC than they know what to do with, and because opening those crystals would just put whole T4CC's in their overflow that they'd eventually just have to sell for the trade-in crystals at a 2-for-1 rate.

With the introduction of 7*s and T6CCs, returning a few hundred T5CC fragments shouldn't be a big deal, say at a rate of 240 per T4CC? That way, every 150x T4CC you sell would return a T5CC. I'd open every single one of my stashed map crystals right now if they implemented that.

Demonzfyre

Quite possibly the worst update to AQ that I've ever witnessed. There's nothing that makes the mode attractive to play. Map 8 w/modifiers is going to be worse than AW and you can only still buy 2 9.5k health pots a day.

You can't revive more than 4k without spending units.

You're forced to make a choice of either using Glory for pots/revs or units and will pretty much everyone playing map 8, we're all using R4's with large health pools.

The very least they could have done is add 40% team revs to the glory store.

They need to get rid of the ticket system or lower the cost of using resources to get 150 tickets per cycle.

Just an absolute garbage update.
@Demonzfyre I don't understand. I've read many times on this very forum that you always blindly support Kabam. Don't you mean it's the best update ever?

Let this be a lesson to all you kids out there.... Don't believe everything you read on the interwebs. 😁😁😘

Chief_prime

The only news I would have really loved (who am I kidding? I'd have thrown fireworks and opened a bottle of champagne!!) would have been AQ shortened to 3 days. Instead of this outdated, pointless and enslaving 5 day format.

More glory is good. More stuff to buy glory with is good. Cheaper stuff is good. Nice job on that.

But please for the love of all that is holy, make AQ shorter 😭🙏

LeNoirFaineant

The only news I would have really loved (who am I kidding? I'd have thrown fireworks and opened a bottle of champagne!!) would have been AQ shortened to 3 days. Instead of this outdated, pointless and enslaving 5 day format.

More glory is good. More stuff to buy glory with is good. Cheaper stuff is good. Nice job on that.

But please for the love of all that is holy, make AQ shorter 😭🙏

I really don't think they will shorten it. I'd be happy if they reduced the cost, increased (or scrapped entirely) the glory cap, and improved the glory store.

Burrito2525

Can we at least make it a static sun-thurs rotation. Fri/sat is always a pita to get people engaged

Kappa2g

So you stated you want to encourage alliances to move up to higher tier maps by changing the reward structure and scoring. But the risk related reward structure wasn't the main hindrance in alliances switching to higher maps, its the crippling ticket cost that most players don't have time to slave out in arenas to pay for.

Its nearly 2023 and AQ still is associated with an entry cost that requires putting in extra grinding hours in addition to AQ itself already being a grind 5 days a week. Is it that difficult of an ask to slash the ticket system entirely as AQ is solely for rank up resources which is an essential part of the game?

Panchulon21

1.) Store seems cool for paragons
2.) the changes to fights are cool

Cons
1.) still 5 days
2.) no mention of glory cap change
3.) it’s aq so it still sucks
4.) no change in health potions, still need to spend a lot of glory to revive and or heal if needed.

GoodfellaBugsy

No more crystals, no increase in glory seems to be short changing the player base. No mention of T6CC even though now modifiers are going to make the maps harder. Players should be rewarded with effort. It’s already a huge hassle for logging several times a day, 5 days a week like a job. QOL needs to be approached and scale it back…

SuperChrona

Where are the T6CC rewards? They have been added to AW, but no options to gain them in AQ. AQ is like third or four on the list of places to gain upgrade resources. Please explain why we should keep trying to increase our prestige, when it is clearly that AQ no longer is a primary place to gain upgrade resources. You have only added relics catalyst to the glory store and no places to gain T6CC resources.

pseudosane

Also, everyone repeating the same drivel is comedy gold.
Complaining is the default setting for millenials and Gen Z-ers.

lmao. boomer detected.

I also grind and have no issues doing so. But you are forgetting something kind sir... THIS IS A GAME.
"work for it" bruh, this is a game. Stop taking it too seriously
better shout at some kids to get off your lawn instead.

Wicket329

Also, everyone repeating the same drivel is comedy gold.
Complaining is the default setting for millenials and Gen Z-ers.

How about we keep focus on the topic of the AQ changes rather than taking random swipes at entire generations because a couple people on the forum for a mobile video game disagreed with you

NearJr

Also, everyone repeating the same drivel is comedy gold.
Complaining is the default setting for millenials and Gen Z-ers.
lmao. boomer detected.

I also grind and have no issues doing so. But you are forgetting something kind sir... THIS IS A GAME.
"work for it" bruh, this is a game. Stop taking it too seriously
better shout at some kids to get off your lawn instead.

So you want rewards without the effort? Lmao... Putting work in to get rewards is the structure of every game, you need to invest something to get something else in return.
I dedicate time and I expect rewards. You expect rewards just because.

The funny thing is the exact opposite rationale is happening when the conversatios is about BGs. We're seeing people with lesser rosters demanding the same rewards in BGs as people with biger ones. And some of the same pundits are saying the oposite regarding AQ. Your ability to contradict yourselves and ping-pong between stances is astounding.

Get off my lawn and put in the work.

pseudosane

Also, everyone repeating the same drivel is comedy gold.
Complaining is the default setting for millenials and Gen Z-ers.
lmao. boomer detected.

I also grind and have no issues doing so. But you are forgetting something kind sir... THIS IS A GAME.
"work for it" bruh, this is a game. Stop taking it too seriously
better shout at some kids to get off your lawn instead.
So you want rewards without the effort? Lmao... Putting work in to get rewards is the structure of every game, you need to invest something to get something else in return.
I dedicate time and I expect rewards. You expect rewards just because.

The funny thing is the exact opposite rationale is happening when the conversatios is about BGs. We're seeing people with lesser rosters demanding the same rewards in BGs as people with biger ones. And some of the same pundits are saying the oposite regarding AQ. Your ability to contradict yourselves and ping-pong between stances is astounding.

Get off my lawn and put in the work.

Might want to wear your glasses old man, since the first statement contradicts your point. I "put in the work". I saw your post on your "grind" and it isnt the same level.
That said, "the grind" isnt fun. This thread is about highlighting the broken system that is AQ, and the issues players have with it.
Maybe you like sitting and putting up with it, thats why you might be seeming out of place here.

NearJr

I know reading comprehension is a lost art so I'm going to take 5 minutes out of my busy day to educate you.

People complain about the rewards, they complain it takes a lot of work for the quality and quantity of rewards.

The main issue I see with that statement is, no rewards will ever be enough if you think you're entitled to the best prizes with zero or little effort. The whole structure of the game is based on the premise of "the more you invest (time, money, etc) the more rewards you get".

If you think AQ is a broken system, you're not obligated to participate in it. Like many other game modes, no one is making you play it. But if you decide to, you need to invest in it, it's that simple. I have never finished one fight in Abyss, and my account is among the top 200 of the game. I chose not to do it, cause I think the rewards never were proportional to the time spent. It's the only game mode I haven't finished and I never will (Carina challenge's included).

You may call it a grind, some other might call it an investment. I see it as a requirement to continue enjoying the game the way you want.

I like AQ, I like the map, the fights and the challenge and the (albeit small) team work.

Playing AQ allows me to rank up champs, which is another thing the game revolves around, and BGs have made ranking champs even more important.

II need to play it in order to achieve one of my game goals.

If you choose to not play AQ, that's fine, but if you choose to play a lesser map and expect the same rewards as someone that plays a more dificult map, you are mistaken.

I will say it again, put in the work, get rewarded, it's as simple as that.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Wicket329

I know reading comprehension is a lost art so I'm going to take 5 minutes out of my busy day to educate you.

People complain about the rewards, they complain it takes a lot of work for the quality and quantity of rewards.

The main issue I see with that statement is, no rewards will ever be enough if you think you're entitled to the best prizes with zero or little effort. The whole structure of the game is based on the premise of "the more you invest (time, money, etc) the more rewards you get".

If you think AQ is a broken system, you're not obligated to participate in it. Like many other game modes, no one is making you play it. But if you decide to, you need to invest in it, it's that simple. I have never finished one fight in Abyss, and my account is among the top 200 of the game. I chose not to do it, cause I think the rewards never were proportional to the time spent. It's the only game mode I haven't finished and I never will (Carina challenge's included).

You may call it a grind, some other might call it an investment. I see it as a requirement to continue enjoying the game the way you want.

I like AQ, I like the map, the fights and the challenge and the (albeit small) team work.

Playing AQ allows me to rank up champs, which is another thing the game revolves around, and BGs have made ranking champs even more important.

II need to play it in order to achieve one of my game goals.

If you choose to not play AQ, that's fine, but if you choose to play a lesser map and expect the same rewards as someone that plays a more dificult map, you are mistaken.

I will say it again, put in the work, get rewarded, it's as simple as that.

I’ve been doing Map 8 since release and haven’t used an item in AQ in months, and Map 7 with all the mods before that, and I’ll be doing Map 8 with all the mods once it drops. I do the content. I also 100% act 6 before it was ever nerfed, 100% Abyss, I’ve done it all. So, by your standards, I believe I’m entitled to an opinion.

You enjoy AQ. I’m genuinely happy for you that you can derive some joy from the mode. A number of players do not. I’ve not taken any polls on the subject, so I can’t tell you how many people find AQ to be a chore rather than an enjoyable part of the game, but my suspicion is that it’s not a small number.

I don’t complain about having to play the mode, I complain that the mode is a bore to play. It’s the same fights over and over and over again. It ties up three champions from my roster that I’d rather use in other content, but they’re the optimal choice for the lane I’m on so they stay in AQ until the heat death of the universe. But if I have to keep doing this unenjoyable slog, I’d like for the rewards to be worthwhile compensation for the time.

Especially because, and @pseudosane said it, this is a game. It is meant to be fun. There should not be content that feels boring but necessary, it should all be enjoyable. And if the content isn’t going to be fun, the dopamine hit of getting some decent rewards for doing it should be.

Demonzfyre

I know reading comprehension is a lost art so I'm going to take 5 minutes out of my busy day to educate you.

People complain about the rewards, they complain it takes a lot of work for the quality and quantity of rewards.

The main issue I see with that statement is, no rewards will ever be enough if you think you're entitled to the best prizes with zero or little effort. The whole structure of the game is based on the premise of "the more you invest (time, money, etc) the more rewards you get".

If you think AQ is a broken system, you're not obligated to participate in it. Like many other game modes, no one is making you play it. But if you decide to, you need to invest in it, it's that simple. I have never finished one fight in Abyss, and my account is among the top 200 of the game. I chose not to do it, cause I think the rewards never were proportional to the time spent. It's the only game mode I haven't finished and I never will (Carina challenge's included).

You may call it a grind, some other might call it an investment. I see it as a requirement to continue enjoying the game the way you want.

I like AQ, I like the map, the fights and the challenge and the (albeit small) team work.

Playing AQ allows me to rank up champs, which is another thing the game revolves around, and BGs have made ranking champs even more important.

II need to play it in order to achieve one of my game goals.

If you choose to not play AQ, that's fine, but if you choose to play a lesser map and expect the same rewards as someone that plays a more dificult map, you are mistaken.

I will say it again, put in the work, get rewarded, it's as simple as that.

I'd say for the majority, the rewards aren't the issue. It's the game mode in itself.

It's boring.
It's repetitive.
It's costly.

They haven't done anything to make AQ fun. AW is fun. Different defenders, think outside the box, strategize, etc.. where AQ is a mindless game mode with almost zero skill needed.

I hate AQ almost as much as I hate arena and I hate arena with nearly every fiber in my being. But rewards are the least of my concerns for AQ.

NearJr

Most games have a repetitive and chore-like side to it. I mentioned before, AQ takes 30 minutes out of my day, I dont see that as a chore. Arena is repetitive af. I do that cause its a mean to an end. I dont like it but the rewards are worth it.

I used to be a World of Warcraft hardcore player. Guess what? It also had boring game modes, repetitive grinds and chores. I played Final Fantasy, same thing. Dota 2, you guessed it, grindy. Those are only some examples.

I stopped playing all of them when it felt that my grind was getting me small increments.

I love MCOC and I see a lot of people that hate many things about it, be it incursions, arena, AQ, AW, side quest, Act content, variant content, etc... My guys, if you dont enjoy 60% of the game modes, maybe this is not the game for you.

I also see a lot of whining and not many suggestions. Lets change the narrative of this thread. List the things/changes you would like to see in order to improve AQ.

The only thing I've seen so far and I agree is the potions. Its time to have percentage based pots.

Demonzfyre

Most games have a repetitive and chore-like side to it. I mentioned before, AQ takes 30 minutes out of my day, I dont see that as a chore. Arena is repetitive af. I do that cause its a mean to an end. I dont like it but the rewards are worth it.

I used to be a World of Warcraft hardcore player. Guess what? It also had boring game modes, repetitive grinds and chores. I played Final Fantasy, same thing. Dota 2, you guessed it, grindy. Those are only some examples.

I stopped playing all of them when it felt that my grind was getting me small increments.

I love MCOC and I see a lot of people that hate many things about it, be it incursions, arena, AQ, AW, side quest, Act content, variant content, etc... My guys, if you dont enjoy 60% of the game modes, maybe this is not the game for you.

I also see a lot of whining and not many suggestions. Lets change the narrative of this thread. List the things/changes you would like to see in order to improve AQ.

The only thing I've seen so far and I agree is the potions. Its time to have percentage based pots.

Pretty sure you're being ignorant on purpose because you want to complain about complainers.

TyEdge

The 3400 glory wall and ticket requirements are the single biggest hindrance to progression in AQ. They’ve literally made it pointless.

If I get 3400 glory at 250 mil and at 599mil, that means I come out behind if there’s literally any item use cost at all associated with harder maps, to say nothing of ticket cost. Rank reward milestones compensate to the slightest degree, but just barely.

We were ranked 800-something at 435mil. We could’ve been a fair bit lower and kept the same rank. If we pushed to 535mil we’d apparently have been 277 and would’ve gotten 200 extra glory and not much else of note.

Kabam Jax

Ahoy!

Friendly neighbourhood Community Manager here, reminding everyone to keep their opinions focused on the game, not other forum users or broader community subsets.

Let's get this thread back on track! So, keeping in mind that these will not be the only changes ever made ever, what do you think of the recently announced changes to AQ?

Wicket329

Most games have a repetitive and chore-like side to it. I mentioned before, AQ takes 30 minutes out of my day, I dont see that as a chore. Arena is repetitive af. I do that cause its a mean to an end. I dont like it but the rewards are worth it.

I used to be a World of Warcraft hardcore player. Guess what? It also had boring game modes, repetitive grinds and chores. I played Final Fantasy, same thing. Dota 2, you guessed it, grindy. Those are only some examples.

I stopped playing all of them when it felt that my grind was getting me small increments.

I love MCOC and I see a lot of people that hate many things about it, be it incursions, arena, AQ, AW, side quest, Act content, variant content, etc... My guys, if you dont enjoy 60% of the game modes, maybe this is not the game for you.

I also see a lot of whining and not many suggestions. Lets change the narrative of this thread. List the things/changes you would like to see in order to improve AQ.

The only thing I've seen so far and I agree is the potions. Its time to have percentage based pots.

You’re kinda proving the point by saying you stopped playing those games because they became grindy and unfun for you, you just have a different threshold for where that line is. And you set the tone of the thread by taking jabs at everybody who didn’t hold your opinions.

But sure, let’s change the narrative. The three pain points of AQ are cost, time expenditure, and repetition.

For cost, I genuinely don’t understand the purpose of the ticket system in the current state of the game. Feels like a relic (not the new, fun kind) of an old meta that is no longer relevant. That can just be done away with entirely and nobody will be mad.

Time expenditure. To me, this issue isn’t how long each of my sessions are doing AQ, it’s the fact that I need to plan to have opportunities in my day to set aside ten minutes to do it. It’s that I have to periodically check in rather than just having a single sitting. I recognize that this aspect of the mode won’t change, but I’d say taking the five day cycle down to a four day cycle would help substantially with that feeling of burnout.

Now the tough question, repetitiveness. AQ in its current state is deeply repetitive, especially with Map 8 only having one iteration. Nothing changes. No new challenges. There are a few ways to combat this. One would be to add a weekly challenge, i.e. use an Offensive: Raw Damage attacker in X number of fights or something to that effect such that you can try to shake up your team for extra rewards. Alternatively, there could be a choice node for giving defenders on your lane an additional node that would increase the score earned from those fights, and that node would vary week to week or even day to day. Lots of different ways to tackle it.

Seraph

Ahoy!

Friendly neighbourhood Community Manager here, reminding everyone to keep their opinions focused on the game, not other forum users or broader community subsets.

Let's get this thread back on track! So, keeping in mind that these will not be the only changes ever made ever, what do you think of the recently announced changes to AQ?

The lack of T6CC means that some of the top 20 AQ alliances will lose players and/or drop down to map 6. There is simply no incentive to pay to play a harder map for no return. Top 20 AW rewards T6CC and so should AQ

pseudosane

Ahoy!

Friendly neighbourhood Community Manager here, reminding everyone to keep their opinions focused on the game, not other forum users or broader community subsets.

Let's get this thread back on track! So, keeping in mind that these will not be the only changes ever made ever, what do you think of the recently announced changes to AQ?

Highly disappointing @Kabam Jax
in my eyes, the update to remove links were far more impactful than this update.

Dont get me wrong, the rewards bump is very nice, I like it.
But in general, AQ difficulty has been bumped, and really doesnt refresh the experience. The core underlying issues havent been addressed.
Why more people dont hit map8? Is it the difficulty? No. It is the overbearing cost, nothing more. This hasnt been addressed.
Potions?: Still the same, barely heals anyone, and not enough to make any impact. Still very costly.
Time requirement? Same, if not more. AQ isnt an engaging mode and nothing here helps with that.

Upping difficulty and doubling down on grind isnt fun."making the mode lighter to play is what this gamemode needs. More attacker damage ramp ups. More options to use vs mini bosses, not more niche encounters.

Reducing the number of days we play AQ would help A LOT. even a one day reduction would be SO MUCH BETTER.
The general consensus is play this mode less, so we can play everything else this game offers.

This update offers more of the same, just added a rewards bump.

DNA3000

Don’t like the change about opening all your crystals, I see no point in this what so ever, why can’t we use them as we need them. Just another cash grab by Kabam.

They are simply stating here a policy they've had for a very long time: at the point where a crystal becomes obsolete (i.e. they stop awarding it) at some future point they can choose to force open them to clear the inventory manifest on the servers. This is something that is true for all crystals, not just the map crystals.

The map crystals might be more likely to be forced open than some other long-obsolete crystals in that they contain a lot of economic value that hangs over the game. Any future decisions about resources that are contained within those crystals have to account for the outstanding value in them across the playerbase, and that's a further development costs to keeping them around forever.

Specifically *because* there are players with a lot of them, they are giving far more advanced warning about this than they normally do for other crystals.

DNA3000

Ahoy!

Friendly neighbourhood Community Manager here, reminding everyone to keep their opinions focused on the game, not other forum users or broader community subsets.

Let's get this thread back on track! So, keeping in mind that these will not be the only changes ever made ever, what do you think of the recently announced changes to AQ?
Highly disappointing @Kabam Jax
in my eyes, the update to remove links were far more impactful than this update.

Dont get me wrong, the rewards bump is very nice, I like it.
But in general, AQ difficulty has been bumped, and really doesnt refresh the experience. The core underlying issues havent been addressed.
Why more people dont hit map8? Is it the difficulty? No. It is the overbearing cost, nothing more. This hasnt been addressed.
Potions?: Still the same, barely heals anyone, and not enough to make any impact. Still very costly.
Time requirement? Same, if not more. AQ isnt an engaging mode and nothing here helps with that.

Upping difficulty and doubling down on grind isnt fun."making the mode lighter to play is what this gamemode needs. More attacker damage ramp ups. More options to use vs mini bosses, not more niche encounters.

Reducing the number of days we play AQ would help A LOT. even a one day reduction would be SO MUCH BETTER.
The general consensus is play this mode less, so we can play everything else this game offers.

This update offers more of the same, just added a rewards bump.

The problem here is that this is a dead-end. If the only way to make AQ more palatable is to allow people to play it less while still getting acceptable rewards, what will they do in season eleven or twelve? If it was true that "the general consensus" was that the only way to improve the experience for AQ was to reduce the time investment (and this is not something I would automatically concede) then that's basically saying the game mode is dead. Because they cannot keep repeating your solution of removing a day. But people will have learned the lesson that asking for fewer days works, and would try again next time, and the next time.

I'm not someone that believes all grind is good: there are limits. For example, I argued against the original incarnation of Dungeons as being over the line grind. But progressional games like this are built upon grind. Grind is not a necessary evil aspect of the game, grind is the game. And while everyone complains about the grind, that is also somewhat deliberate. By definition, a game that supports itself with F2P microtransaction mechanics cannot have everyone able to reach all of their goals within their playtime limits. If everyone could, few if anyone would spend. The game needs grind and it needs grind that most players believe is at least somewhat more than they would like, so they are presented with an actual choice of whether to spend or not.

AQ is currently five days out of eight, or about 63% uptime. It is barely running half the time. I find it difficult to accept that a game mode intended to be a continuous part of the game that is only running slightly more than half the time is making an unreasonable grind expectation on the players.

Pikolu

AQ would be fine imo if there was no limit on the amount of AQ energy we could buy from the glory store

GabeZRod

As someone who has a lot of F2P players in my alliance who also don’t have time to spend more than a few hours per day to play the game, the cost of AQ tickets is unsustainable for Map 8.

For F2P players who don’t buy Summoner’s Sigil or AQ tickets, they’re expected to use 1.5M gold every week, which overall outweighs most people’s excitement for these increased amount of rankup materials. My alliance stopped running Map 8 a few months ago due to outdated rewards, and it was nice to see how much more people were actually able to rank up their champs because they actually had both a steady growth in rankup materials (from other game modes) AND gold (from not running Map 8 anymore). To have both steady gold and rankup materials while running Map 8 requires so much more time playing the game for Arena that I feel most would rather stop playing the game altogether from experience.

baskinrobbinsknows

Yo everyone let’s please keep it respectful. No need to take shots at people.

Have you been on the forums? I just get my popcorn ready and enjoy the show.